We got into the house yesterday and I must say, I was surprised at the lack of chemical odours.
The carpets in the locked off rooms did smell faintly of urine, of course. What's with that in old houses?
Anyway, I've decided to move all the stuff related to this house and its renovation to a new blog. This here blog is reaching the end of its life-span. There's not much related to islands happening in my life these days.
I hope I'm not jumping the gun, starting a blog about renovating a house that's not even ours yet.
Either way, if you're interested, please head over here to have a look at the photos. The follow button up the top, under the 'Follow Along' tab (hint hint).
I'm still finalising the layout and design, so excuse it's mild un-finishedness.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Green Acres pt II
Well, I'm delighted to say we have a signed contract on our new fixer upper! I hope I'm not jinxing this one...
Here it is on Google Street View. It's both houses, as I've said previously, and 11 acres.
The white house was the post office. We've received an email from an elderly lady in the area who grew up just down the road, telling us about her recollections of visiting the place with her father to collect mail.
She said the building did originally have open verandas, with a split half staircase (starts as two, joining in a landing halfway up the house). That's exactly what Dan and I planned to restore it to, which is a good start. She has confirmed the layout of the house was essentially what we thought - split in two halves, one half serving as the home of the postmaster and one half as the post office.
She has confirmed the little yellow building was the first school in the area, although she went to the second school which was just down the road and was also restored recently.
She also says she has family who once called the property home and is now approaching them asking for any photos of it from the past.
All in all, it's VERY exciting. I'm going back out there tomorrow to try and grab some more photos. I've also asked to be let into the locked rooms.
Demanding, aren't I? Wanting to see the rooms in the house we've just bought? So pushy.
I sure hope the meth lab is gone by then.
Here it is on Google Street View. It's both houses, as I've said previously, and 11 acres.
The white house was the post office. We've received an email from an elderly lady in the area who grew up just down the road, telling us about her recollections of visiting the place with her father to collect mail.
She said the building did originally have open verandas, with a split half staircase (starts as two, joining in a landing halfway up the house). That's exactly what Dan and I planned to restore it to, which is a good start. She has confirmed the layout of the house was essentially what we thought - split in two halves, one half serving as the home of the postmaster and one half as the post office.
She has confirmed the little yellow building was the first school in the area, although she went to the second school which was just down the road and was also restored recently.
She also says she has family who once called the property home and is now approaching them asking for any photos of it from the past.
All in all, it's VERY exciting. I'm going back out there tomorrow to try and grab some more photos. I've also asked to be let into the locked rooms.
Demanding, aren't I? Wanting to see the rooms in the house we've just bought? So pushy.
I sure hope the meth lab is gone by then.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Green Acres
We went and looked at the hoarder's house yesterday, which I've now renamed Green Acres because it's infinitely more romantic sounding, while still summing up the state of the place.
It was... cool. Seriously, cool. Rundown, but cool.
It didn't get off to a good start. We met the agent, knocked on the door of the main house and got no answer. It was open, so we assumed the owner had made herself scarce and in we went.
Scarce did not turn out to be her thing. She came running in a minute or so later and started shouting at the agent. Turns out she lives in the smaller house, hadn't heard us arrive, and thought we were in there thieving.
After further warning us that had her son been home, we would have been shot, the agent managed to calm her down and she escorted us around the property, occasionally mumbling under her breath and tempting us with her own sales pitch.
This part of the house to be the local post office. We threw out all the old wood pigeon holes and things though, so you can just use it to store things.
Sigh.
The main house, which did indeed used to serve as the local post office once, is HUGE and featured several rooms that were padlocked and couldn't be entered.
My son lives there. He doesn't like people in his space.
How people expect to sell a house they're not willing to let buyers explore is a rant for another day, but Dan and I had already established this house was not your run of the mill purchase, so it didn't completely surprise us. A quick scuttle under the house revealed solid floorboards, we knew the walls were VJ and that was good enough. Whatever's going on behind those doors (meth lab), we don't really care right now.
The second little house on the property used to be the local school house. Again, it had been unsympathetically renovated but the potential was there to live in it temporarily while renovating the big house, and then use it as a guest house.
So, to cut a long story a bit shorter, we're making an offer. If we're successful, we'll be moving into the little house straight away and working to get the place back under control while restoring the big house to eventually move in there.
The place needs a hell of a lot of work, YEARS worth of work, to restore to its former glory, but could one day be an amazing and very large country home.
The real estate rollercoaster continues!
It was... cool. Seriously, cool. Rundown, but cool.
Scarce did not turn out to be her thing. She came running in a minute or so later and started shouting at the agent. Turns out she lives in the smaller house, hadn't heard us arrive, and thought we were in there thieving.
After further warning us that had her son been home, we would have been shot, the agent managed to calm her down and she escorted us around the property, occasionally mumbling under her breath and tempting us with her own sales pitch.
This part of the house to be the local post office. We threw out all the old wood pigeon holes and things though, so you can just use it to store things.
Sigh.
The main house, which did indeed used to serve as the local post office once, is HUGE and featured several rooms that were padlocked and couldn't be entered.
My son lives there. He doesn't like people in his space.
How people expect to sell a house they're not willing to let buyers explore is a rant for another day, but Dan and I had already established this house was not your run of the mill purchase, so it didn't completely surprise us. A quick scuttle under the house revealed solid floorboards, we knew the walls were VJ and that was good enough. Whatever's going on behind those doors (meth lab), we don't really care right now.
The second little house on the property used to be the local school house. Again, it had been unsympathetically renovated but the potential was there to live in it temporarily while renovating the big house, and then use it as a guest house.
So, to cut a long story a bit shorter, we're making an offer. If we're successful, we'll be moving into the little house straight away and working to get the place back under control while restoring the big house to eventually move in there.
The place needs a hell of a lot of work, YEARS worth of work, to restore to its former glory, but could one day be an amazing and very large country home.
The real estate rollercoaster continues!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)